MAHAYUTI IN MAHA PICKLE

Seat-sharing talks no walk in the park, even for Mahayuti

The Mahayuti of the BJP, the Shiv Sena and the NCP, is in a maha pickle, struggling to reach seat-sharing arrangements for 48 Lok Sabha seats, even as the first phase of nomination for five seats concluded on Wednesday, and in the second round, talks for eight seats had begun. Although unanimous about its Mission 45-plus in Maharashtra, to contribute to the NDA’s 400-plus target, the current state of the ruling alliance is best summed up as ‘tujhya vachun zamena, tujhya vachun karmena (Can’t live with you, can’t live without you)’.

Curiously, the BJP has yet to take a formal decision on accommodating the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena into the Mahayuti, despite party chief Raj Thackeray’s meeting with Home Minister Amit Shah. Further, even though the BJP has succeeded in wooing Rashtriya Samaj Paksha founder Mahadev Jankar, offering him one seat, the three partners have yet to decide on that constituency.

Notwithstanding the ongoing negotiations, the Shinde faction unilaterally released its first list of eight candidates despite Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar’s announcement two days ago that he, along with Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and the other deputy CM, Devendra Fadnavis, would address a joint press conference on Thursday to release the seat-sharing deal and the names of candidates for all 48 seats.